What TNA does right, at least for me, is bring back a control scheme that's a bit reminiscent of the old Nintendo 64 titles No Mercy and Wrestlemania 2000. It's not quite dead on, and there are some collision detection issues in there, but the idea is definitely the same from what I can remember. The grappling system consists of using the Y button to execute your basic grapple, where you can then press the left analog to perform a particular move within the grapple, like a spine buster, neck breaker, etc. You can also hold down the LB, which enters you into a strong grapple, which then executes some slightly different moves, along with your special when it's activated.

Along with your basic grapple mechanics, you have your standard punch and kick attacks, also modified into strong moves with the LB, and then your aerial maneuvers that can be pulled off from the ropes or turnbuckles. This is all pretty standard stuff when it comes to wrestling games, and for the most part TNA Impact gets it all together, and it feels pretty fluid.

However, TNA Impact is definitely missing quite a few bells and whistles, and pales in comparison to Smackdown vs. Raw, and even pales a bit to some of the stuff available in the games it's attempting to emulate. The create a wrestler mode is pretty barren, offering only slight differences in costume, faces, body types, skin color, moves, finishers, and more. Hell, you can't even preview the entrances you select for your CAW, and the only way to tell what you have is to actually try a match out and see what pops up.

The online mode is also lacking, with only 3 different match types to participate in, (there are more offline though). Also, in playing about 50 or so online matches, I encountered a fair share of lag, and a lot of problems with people quitting right after a 2 count (before it hits the 3), leading to no penalty for the opposing player, or a win for me. Midway definitely needs to look at fixing this, as it becomes really difficult to move up the ranks the more people realize they can get away with this stuff. Also, there's some issue with kicking out of pins on occasion, where you'll wiggle the sticks to fill the meter, but it doesn't actually do anything. This can happen after only a few hits, so it's not a matter of taking a great deal of damage.

The roster also feels a little light, with some obvious omissions. I do wonder how much of that was actually planned to allow for some DLC. They've already confirmed Petey Williams will show up as DLC soon, and Curry Man has been heavily rumored. I'm surprised to see zero of the TNA Knockouts present. I realize Gail Kim would be difficult now that she's not with TNA, but I figured we'd see someone like Awesome Kong or ODB show up for sure.

Some of the AI is questionable as well, which really doesn't become apparent until you get into the Tag Team matches. It seems pretty random as to whether or not you can get your partner to jump in and save your bacon if you're under a pin or submission, and even if he does, it's not guaranteed he'll actually hit anything. However, I did notice that when you wrestle against Samoa Joe, he does focus heavily on using submissions against you, which is a nice touch, and shows that developers did attempt to give certain wrestlers traits that mimic their TV counterparts.

The main story mode uses your created wrestler, but also makes him into a new wrestler for the game named Suicide. When the game beings Suicide gets tossed into a Tijuana hospital after refusing to throw a championship match. When he awakens he undergoes some reconstructive surgery (this is where the CAW comes in), and his memory is gone, which sets up the rest of the story. It's actually pretty fun to play thru, and I thought it was nice that they actually created a few jobbers to toss at you in between the larger named matches.

Actual wrestlers and announcers provide all the voiceover work, but the in game announcing work never really feels spot on. It's decent stuff, but every time I get put into a submission, even at the beginning of the match, I'm apparently "done for". I'd like to see the announcing respond a bit more to the actual in ring gameplay, but unfortunately it starts to get repetitious and boring pretty quickly. Also, there are no speaking lines for guys like Sting or Kurt Angle, which is surprising considering how big they are on TNA. It feels like the whole main story could have been a bit longer, and involved more of the roster than it does, and the actual story mode is over pretty quickly. After that, there's not much else to do other than exhibition and online matches, where you can build up style points to unlock more CAW moves and a few unlockable wrestlers as well.

Basically, TNA Impact does manage to do a few things that I really enjoyed, and feels different enough from the slightly stale Smackdown vs. Raw series to keep me interested in seeing another attempt down the line. But this initial entry doesn't feel like it's been fully fleshed out, and I'd like to see a lot more options introduced to both the roster and the create a wrestler mode. There are some issues with the online stuff that definitely needs fixing to make it fun and worth playing, and hopefully that's something that can be accomplished with a patch down the line. So if you're looking for something new, TNA Impact might be able to fulfill that need, but don't expect it to reinvent the wheel in it's current state.